Member postings for Steve Withnell

Thanks for the tip on Freecad, just downloading now.

Steve

Sort of model engineering. I came across this site:

**LINK**

For a $2 Paypal payment you get 24 hours to download as many gears in .dxf format as you need.

Once you have the .dxf files you can then scale them up as you wish. I upscaled these in CUT2D and then had the KX1 cut them out. This is a set for a toy for my Grandson -

I've been using the KX1 to produce some basic PCB's, which is overkill really and the spindle speed is a bit limiting.

Mach 3 will drive this and the spindle speed is 10k so should be better suited to cutting PCB's and I can use it on the kitchen table rather than retire to the workshop!

**LINK**

Some of this stuff can turn out to be junk - so anyone run one of these?

Regards

Steve

I've been driving manuals for 40 years. I now have an 8 speed automatic and it's magic, will never go back to manual. Absolutely suited to our massively congested road systems.

Interesting! Yes it is for an Amateur Radio application - Oscar 100 satellite. Not me by the way, just enjoy building the stuff. I managed to finish a 2.4Ghz filter to sit in front of the PA which looks like it is proving close on 50dB suppression of the mixer signal whilst the insertion loss is c0.5dB at the centre frequency.

I've been playing with FR4 and with a brand new 5mm carbide cutter, the large areas skim off really nicely. I've experimented with 2mm, 1mm and 0.5mm milling cutters and getting good results. The is no requirement for 0.1inch matrix for this board. My 'customer' has simplified the PCB design, so I might get away with 1mm cutter for the edge of the tracks and a 5mm cutter to remove the waste areas.

Given 5G is targeting 76GHz then there will be plenty of work to keep you busy! Lancaster Uni have developed some backhaul radio systems at 94GHz. for 5G, so lots of interesting stuff going on.

Regards

Steve

Looks fantastic Joseph!

One other poster had a strong recommend for 60 deg cutters - sounds like you are at the other end of the range with 10 deg cutters?

The PCB I'm looking to cut is pretty exotic stuff - RT6035HTC. As you say, the cladding is 35um.

What I've just discovered is the substrate is ceramic loaded with PTFE! Ceramic doesn't sound good at all, but worth a try. Otherwise its going to have to be back to chemi-etch which I really want to avoid.

The board is for a 300Watt 2.4GHz amplifier (think solid state microwave) so needs excellent heat tolerance hence the ceramic.

Steve

I have one of those belts, but never used it. I've assumed it joins just like a Meccano belt where one end is a tight spiral that you 'screw' into the open end. It must be joined in some way?

Steve

Well I got that one wrong - turns out they are not cutters but drills! So I do need to look at getting some engraving cutters...

I'll also take a look at ramping, I've seen the function in the CUT2D screens but not tried it out yet.

Next stop Woody's Workshop!

Regards

Steve

I've just bought some 0.4mm milling cutters, to try to cut some isolation tracks in a PCB. Now I know 0.4mm is pretty small, but cutter in hand, it's scary small.

Max spindle speed is 7000rpm - so given I use a 0.04mm depth of cut - any views on what the maximum cutting speed should be? My calculator says 50mm per minute, but these things look like they will shatter with a hard stare!

I know 7000rpm is way short for a cutter of that diameter, but I need to work with what I have.

The other question would be plunge rates - not only for the 0.4mm cutter, but any cutter. It's something I've never worried about with a manual machine, but no 'feel' with a little CNC means I do need to think about it now.

Regards

Steve

HI Jason,

Got too absorbed with the KX1 You are right, the 16:9 ratio screen works well, but using a 23 inch monitor I already had. The Mach3 screens are properly proportioned and there is plenty of room for the Jog flyout. I've a bit of sorting out to do then I will move onto a touch screen.

I've cut quite a few things using CUT2D, I've just cut some holes in a case and have screws in different planes interfering , which wasn't obvious until I machined them! So I could do with a package which will show all features before generating the toolpaths.

The KX1 is really sweet, wish I'd got one years ago! A few trivial bugs the max spindle speed was set at 5,000 rpm, which I've now reset to 7,000 rpm as per spec.

One thing I'm not comfortable with yet is working out plunge rates and suspect I'm being a bit too gentle!

Regards

Steve

Hi William,

I've just started out on this journey. I'm using Vectric Cut2D as an easy way to generate G code for Mach 3 and it's by far the easiest piece of CAD/CAM software I've tried so far.

Steve

Edited By Steve Withnell on 24/04/2019 08:27:59

Thanks folks. I've so much going on I'd forgotten I had a set of step drills, if they won't go all the way, I can use a boring bar to get to a push fit with the pipe. The pipe is very short (it's not a plumbing job) around 20mm and needs to be a precise fit, which is why I thought about teasing out to size with a boring bar.

Will report back...

Steve

I need to make two holes in copper sheet, nominally 22mm. Nominally, because I want the hole to be a push fit for a selected piece of 22mm copper waterpipe.

One sheet is 1.5mm thick and 55mm diameter overall and the other 3mm thick and 105mm diameter. (If you read the same magazine that I do, you will know what this is for )

My plan was to sandwich each sheet between two pieces of 18mm ply and clamp it down onto the mill table, then drill out to 19mm. Then use a boring tool to creep up to the push fit diameter.

The questions - is this the best way of achieving the goal? What do I need to manage to ensure a nice clean hole and what spindle speed should I run the boring tool at?

Many thanks in advance

Steve

As a practical question, just how much useful air can you store? Gas bottles are filled with say propane in its liquid state which vaporises as the pressure is released from the bottle. This allows for a huge volume of gas to be available from quite a small cylinder. Compressed air - the receiver on my 1.5HP compressor doesn't store enough enough for any useful purpose (even running my Victoria or spraying it, the pump is forever kicking in). Amateur mistake, I should have bought a bigger one...

Steve

Cheers Jason.

Steve

Lovely job Craig. Thanks for sharing the photo's, there is a lot of effort required to keep on top of the photo's whilst trying to produce a quality set of parts, which can be tough enough!

Regards

Steve

Thanks John. I'm just setting up a WinXP SP3 workstation and I've found a couple of touchscreens I've found have XP support, one is 4:3 and a couple are 16:9, So just interested to know what aspect ratio Mach3 is designed for.

The 4:3 one I found is meant to be used as a PoS terminal, so might be more rugged than the standard desktop screen.

I have run Mach3 demo version on my laptop, but the aspect ratio looked a bit off, which is why I thought the native design was for 4:3.

Best regards

Steve

I'm looking to buy a new touch screen as my Mach 3 control panel (I don't have Mach 3 to play with yet). Do 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio screens work best?

Like many of us, I don't have acres of space so thinking a 12 or 15" panel is enough...

I'll be using the locked down version of Mach3 as provided by ArcEurotrade.

Best regards

Steve

And he only had one house - how times change!

Just been through this myself. I've seperated the problem into two parts - the phone and the service contract. Three are charging me £12 a month for 12GB of data + unlimited text and calls. So stopped using the house phone for outbound calls. See how much you spend on outbound calls to get the overall cost difference. I 've had the phone for a couple months or so and no matter how hard I use the phone, I haven't managed to use 5GB in a month, so 12GB is equivalent to "unlimited" in my case!

Next problem is then the phone itself. Samsung are fantastic phones, my wife has had them for along time. However, the latest Samsung is £750!!! Not happening. We now have three different Motorola phones in the family and all are good. They are built by Lenovo who have a good reputation. Two of the three were bought as special offers from Carphone Warehouse, service is great and they are easy to deal with. The third was bought from an online outfit offering the phone Moto X4 as the sharpest price, but rapidly turned into a nightmare which took weeks to sort out.

Reading your post, sounds like the X4 (with its 3 cameras and all metal case) is too big and heavy - albeit fantastic value for money. Take a look at a Motorola G5Plus, still big but lighter and it will give you a starting point. It's the right sort of processor and memory capacity to provide at least say 3 years usage before obsolence kills it.

https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/motorola/moto-g5-plus.html#!colour=grey&capacity=32GB&dealType=sf

Whatever phone you go for, do check/challenge the processor as this will determine longevity and the satisfaction you get from using it. Just like driving an underpowered car is a constant source of frustration.

Not having had my own smartphone before, I've been amazed at the huge volume of free and useful applications in the playstore.

Steve